Stealth

The Path of Blood

HIGH HD Traditions of the Trade.

LOW Trying to sneak up on someone in Silent Assassin.

WTF Aaaaaah! G-g-g-g-ghost!

Kalypso Media recently invited GameCritics to take a second look at the upcoming vampire-themed stealth game Dark, from Realmforge Studios. It was originally covered by Brandon Bales, but it's been a while and we were interested in seeing how it's progressed.

Extra Credits talks about the "exposition dump." What is that, you ask? The "exposition dump" is one of the easiest ways with which a developer can tell a story, explain a game world or explain a game world's rules. Even lauded game designers like Hideo Kojima use this method to tell a story—and why not, if Metal Gear Solid's success is any indication, there are few repercussions for overusing it. Thankfully, there are examples of doing the opposite and being rewarded for it. The Half-Life series, Fallout 3 and Journey are examples of doing it right.

Metal Gear Squalid

HIGH The final mission in high chaos adds much-needed narrative tension.

LOW The penultimate mission seems to drag on forever.

WTF The "shocking twist" can be seen coming from orbit by a blind man with his eyes closed… Not that having his eyes closed actually matters, what with him being blind and all.

The Easy Way Out

HIGH Taking out an entire encampment of privateers at close range without being detected.

LOW The final mission in the "Buck" sideplot is just gross.

WTF Can I please face one major boss I don't kill in an apparent hallucination?

Bloodbath Island

HIGH Leaping off a zipline and driving a machete into one pirate, then slashing his friend's throat before he realizes what's happening.

LOW Being asked to make one of the stupidest endgame choices in history.

WTF Okay, that's a lot of Komodo Dragons all in one place.

If Agent 47 and Sam Fisher had a Lovechild, Absolution Would be its Name

HIGH Absolution has the most realistic living world I've experienced in a game.

LOW The checkpoint system is totally broken.

WTF Who casts badass Vivica A. Fox just to give her a tiny bit of dialogue?

The Most Murderous Janitor in History

HIGH Sneaking around as a scarecrow while killing nuns is so surreal it's sort of fun.

LOW Having a guard 100 yards away see right through my disguise.

WTF Who left all these empty dumpsters around for me to hide in? Why does no one ever look inside them?

Everything is True. Nothing is Permitted.

HIGH Swimming around a pier, climbing a ship, and using a rope dart to hang a target from a yardarm.

LOW As I walk past two men on a bench, I get notified that I have my first pursuer. The whisper noise starts just as one of them gets up and stabs me for 700 points.

WTF Approaching a fort, I found I could no longer hide in shrubs even though I wasn't observed. When I reached the captain, I found only an indicator hanging in the air, without a body to stab beneath it.

Duckwalk Supreme

HIGH A handful of missions have the genuine "Hitman" feel.

LOW The ill-conceived "Shaving Lenny" level.

WTF What numerically-impaired person numbered these chapters?